Huskers Post Best NCAA FInish Since 1994

Bloomington, Ind. -- The Nebraska women's cross country team finished their season on a high note claiming 16th place at the NCAA Cross Country Championship in Bloomington, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 22. It's the best finish for Nebraska, who tallied 430 points, since 1994 when the team also took 16th place.

Head Coach Jay Dirksen said he was pleased with his team's performance on the tough University of Indiana Golf Course.

"I thought it was a great meet overall," Dirksen said. "We improved from 23rd last year, which is a major improvement."

The Huskers were led by senior Michelle Brooks, who ran to a 31st-place finish in 17:26.10. Dirksen said he was impressed with how Brooks tackled her first national meet.

"Michelle Brooks as an individual was so close to being an All-American," Dirksen said. "It was kind of disappointing that she's never been here before because this is the kind of meet where having been here and having the experience of competing in this meet, really helps you out. This race was just totally different than all the other races you run in all year."

Brooks' finish marked the best individual performance by a Husker at the national meet since 1993 when Theresa Stelling took 24th. The top 25 finishers earn All-America status.

Fellow senior Jaime Pauli had a solid final race finishing in 17:56.70 to take 85th.

"Pauli ended her career on a real high note," Dirksen said. "She had a really solid performance."

Freshman Kathryn Handrup was the next Husker to cross the finish line, tackling the rolling course like a veteran, finishing 137th in 18:14.50.

"I'm particularly pleased with Kathryn Handrup, who I think some day has a chance to be an All-American at Nebraska," Dirksen said. "On minimal training this year, she's done just great. She performed better than most freshman do at this meet."

Early in the race, Nebraska had five runners near the back of the pack but each was able to move up.

"Going into the half mile mark on the course, we had five of the last places in the meet and we moved well up into middle of the race," Dirksen said. "That showed a lot of patience by the runners."

Juniors Jaimie Kruger and Amie Finker, along with senior Melinda Oliver, all finished within four seconds of each other. Kruger placed 146th in 18:18.40, Finkner took 157th in 18:21.50, while Oliver crossed the line in 18:22.90 to take 161st.

Rounding out the scoring for Nebraska was freshman Mirjana Glisovic, who finished 196th in 18:43.30.

The meet was won by Erica Palmer of Wisconsin in 16:39.50, while Brigham Young took the team title with 72 points.

Dirksen said he was pleased the team's performance this season especially after losing last year's top finisher Jeannette Zimmer to injury before the Big 12 Championships.

"All in all I think we had a really good team performance," Dirksen. "We had a lot of depth. After losing Jeannette this year, most teams wouldn't have been able to recover and do this well at the national meet."

However, Dirksen will have to replace three seniors in Brooks, Pauli and Oliver.

"They're good runners but even more than that, they're real great team leaders," Dirksen said. "Michelle Brooks is very talented and she'll be very hard to replace. Jaime has been a great captain this year and Melinda has a lot of leadership skills and is very important in the cohesiveness of our team. I think they're all going to be missed in different ways. Yet on the other hand, we have a lot of good young athletes coming up and people that have experience who will return next year."